A fire at a Hunter Valley power station could end up costing $20 million, the NSW government says.
NSW Fire and Rescue have been battling to stop 8000 litres of cooling oil from escaping into Lake Macquarie after a massive fire broke out in one of the Eraring power station's generator transformers on Friday morning.
NSW Energy Minister Chris Hartcher said the loss of generation capacity at the station could cost state-owned Eraring up to $20 million, as it would have to pay damages to Origin Energy under its energy supply contract.
He a 'shimmer' of cooling oil had been detected in nearby Lake Macquarie; however, it is not considered an environmental hazard.
Mr Hartcher said two layers of booms had been placed in an outlet canal running into the lake to contain the oil.
'On the advice of HAZMAT officers two booms were deployed at the outlet canal into Lake Macquarie to contain a light shimmer of oil on the water in the outlet canal,' Mr Hartcher said at the end of a budget estimates committee hearing at state parliament.
'The installation of two booms was effective; however there is evidence of some oil shimmer on the lake.
'Due to a change in the wind, the oil shimmer has blown into Whiteheads Lagoon, which is adjacent to the power station outlet canal at Lake Macquarie.
'It is not considered an environmental hazard. This is currently being closely monitored by HAZMAT officers and Eraring Energy staff.'
He repeated earlier advice that the fire posed no risk to the state's power supply.
'Latest forecasts from the Australian Energy Market Operator indicate demand for NSW will peak around 9000 megawatts today,' he said.
'However, there is almost 12,000 megawatts of available generation in NSW.'
It typically took six weeks to repair the type of damage suffered by the transformer, he said.
